Playing their last show in Australia before calling it quits and flying home early due to health reasons, The Wombats enchanted Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on a chilly post-Splendour Tuesday night.
Cut Off Your Hands warmed up the squishy crowd in pop-alicious fashion. Their dancefloor-friendly styles had the very female-heavy crowd shaking their bon bons and sweating for more. While I did resent them slightly for making me be out on a Tuesday night after a hard day working for the man, the other, less bitter members of the crowd couldn’t resist their contagious charm. Playing oldies Oh Girl and Closed Eyes, as well as new track Let’s Get Out Of Here, the highlight of the set was the cover of Split Enz classic Shark Attack.
They may be hailed as the greatest thing to come out of New Zealand since sliced sheep, but I found them slightly generic. Maybe it was my tired eyes, but they were just a little too ‘indie hipster cool’ for me to run into the squishy crowd with the sweaty girls.
Forty minutes later, The Wombats graced us with their bright marsupial presence. After the lights went down, and Queen’s Bicycle (played through in entirety) blasted over the speakers, two funny Brits and the tiny Norwegian chap ran onto the stage with the enthusiasm their band is renowned for. Their primary colour, Wiggles-esque attire was a welcome change to the ‘black is the new black’ look of these darn youth bands hitting stages of late.
Playing through the entirety of The Wombats present: A Guide To Love, Loss and Marsupials in random order, no fan was left unsatisfied. Highlights were singles Moving To New York and Kill the Director as well as the radio-saturated Let’s Dance To Joy Division. Patricia the Stripper was a surprise crowd favourite, with Murph introducing the song as “a song about falling in love with a hooker”.
Probably the best song of the night, though, was the new track that was being road-tested during this tour. It showed maturity in songwriting and felt like a very whole, natural progression for the band to make. An excellent first taste of the new CD that will hopefully follow.
The Wombats have an infectious enthusiasm about them that can even turn cranky old reviewers like me into giggling tit-mice. And, showing some restraint, they only mentioned their deity Harold Bishop four times.
